It was the Emperor Marcus Aurelius that once wrote “To understand the true quality of people, you must look into their minds, and examine their pursuits and aversions”. This is how I would look into ancient Roman civilization. The heart of the Roman conquest machine lies under an effective and blunt violence and the quest for the glorification of Rome itself.

The first real Roman story begins in a city called Alba Longa founded by the son of the Trojan hero Aeneas, Ascanius. Alba Longa was located at the Latium (future Lazio region in Italy) and overtime became the centre of the region.

As the majority of the civilizations in the ancient world, Alba Longa had violent customs that would sound very cruel in present time.

It all started when king Porcas died and left his two sons Numitor and Amulius. Numitor was the elder son and by law inherited the throne of Alba Longa, succeeding in the long line of the Trojan hero Aeneas as king of the city.

Amulius, the youngest son of Porcas, was too ambitious to be left as a subject of his brother. Power and wealth was much more valuable to him than tradition and respect, so he schemed a coup to take over Alba Longa. 

Violently, his plot was successful

He invaded the city and took it to himself. Numitor, his brother, was deposed but that was not enough as Amulius had nephews that could claim the throne one day and, the only solution for that, was to kill all of them. Well, all but one: Rhea Silvia.

As Rhea would never be rightful to succession, she herself would never pose a threat, however she could still have sons. Amulius spared her life, therefore he commanded Rhea to become a Vestal Virgin. This way she should never bear children of her own, consequently would not provoke other pleas for Amulius kingship.

That should be the end for Numitor’s progeny and the ultimate victory to the ambitious Amulius, although that was not the destiny the Parcae had planned.

Rhea Silvia already was a Vestal Virgin for a while when a mysterious man came to her. He was charming, well educated, handsome and massively provocative. Rhea didn’t want to give up her vows as she knew the consequences of disregarding the gods, but the mystery man was too much for her. She then laid with him on that day.

After that, the mysterious gentleman decided to reveal himself and claimed to be Mars, the Roman god of war. He also confessed that Rhea’s breed would exceed all men in bravery, but Rhea was a Vestal Virgin that had just broken her vows to the goddess Vesta.

Vesta was furious and, before she could deploy all her anger over Rhea, the goddess Venus intervened. Venus was the ancestress of Rhea and did not abandon her, protecting the former virgin from the wrath of her fellow goddess, but not from Amulius.

She gave birth to twins and the king, not feeling any sympathy for the infants, condemned Rhea to death and her children were to be cast out in the River Tiber. This was a common practice in ancient Latium. When, for any reason, a person did not want the child, they could abandon them in a public place or just throw them in the river, a practice that was only abolished around 374 AD.

A drop of hope

Amulius’ orders were carried out by the servants. Rhea Silvia, his niece, was no more and the babies were taken to the river banks. Getting there, the servants took another look at the wee ones and decided to give them a little chance. Instead of just letting them drown, they put them into a basket, so they could float and maybe…. MAYBE… have a chance to grow up in peace, away from the king’s wrath.

Fortune was thrown to the two boys. Floating they went on, adrift through the river, but what the servants and the king did forget was that the river had life of its own. The river god Tiberinus heard the story and saw the pity in the servants eyes and decided to intervene on behalf of the twins’ fate taking them to the shore, away from everyone’s sight.

This was when something unexpected happened. A she-wolf that had just whelped approached the helpless children and, rather than killing or eating them, surprisingly gave them to suckle. The reason that this may have happened is unsure, maybe her offspring didn’t come through and she instinctively felt the need to breastfeed the new puppies or perhaps she was sent by the gods to protect them. The truth we will never exactly know.

The she-wolf kept them strong and warm long enough until a shepherd called Faustulus and his wife Larentia found them. Pitting the twins, they adopted both and gave them the names that would echo into eternity: Romulus and Remus.

Romulus and Remus grew up handsome and strong in body and mind, natural leaders amongst their community. Farmers, huntsmen and shepherds respected and acknowledged their genuine leadership until the day their father came up to them in a serious tone, strangely different from usual.

Faustulus had an urgent quality in his voice, maybe deeper and stronger, we do not know. He might not even look like himself. Faustulus started by telling about their adoption, about the she-wolf and who they really were. He told them about Numitor and his mother Rhea, told them about their uncle’s wrath and disregard for their lives. He told everything.

Regarding that, I would like to propose some questions: how should Faustulus, a simple shepherd, know about all these details? Why now, when their sons were adults and all was just fine? Was he really Faustulus or maybe he was their real father, Mars, the powerful god of war that turned into the shepherd’s image to bring his children up to their destiny?

In the end, that didn’t matter because the twins had their father’s blood and that story should not be laid down in peace. Their birthright and the justice with their mother and grandfather should be restored.

Being natural leaders, Romulus and Remus started a revolt against their tyrant uncle.

Everywhere they passed through, they gathered more and more supporters to the cause. Mars’ blood assured them they would never be defeated in battle. They were strong, clever and exceeded all men in bravery and violence when facing the enemy.

The brothers fought and fought, killing soldiers, captains and generals until they could take the usurper Amulius. The belic twins then did not disappoint their father’s nature and killed the now fallen king. Amulius, the tyrant that desired power above everything, should die for his crimes.

Amulius was executed and Numitor, who was still imprisoned, was restored as rightful king of Alba Longa. Romulus and Remus could have taken the city for themselves, but they actually wanted a kingdom of their own. Peace was in sight and all seemed finally well, but we are talking about Rome my friends and blood must flow once more before the end.

Romulus and Remus haven’t decided yet where the new city should be and couldn’t agree on the location. Romulus prefered the Palatine Hill and on the other hand, Remus would rather built it on the Aventine Hill. The only reasonable option at that point was to ask the gods for advice.

The brothers chose to use the augury, an old practice of Roman religion that concerns observing the birds and interpreting omens from their behavior. They did so in a different fashion, Romulus used a crooked staff known as lituus, a proper tool to measure the omens while Remus just had a casual approach, looking at the birds randomly.

For the first time since the end of the rebellion, Romulus had shown more knowledge of the world compared to his brother Remus. That had happened before when, on one occasion, Remus was captured by Alba Longa soldiers and Romulus rescued him. Romulus seemed stronger in mind and more fit to rule, but that was not enough for Remus. History seemed likely to repeat. The difference is that they loved each other, but again, their nature had influence from the Roman god of war, Mars, and defeat would never be acceptable, not even for love.

Remus saw six vultures in favour of the Aventine Hill whilst Romulus saw twelve, setting the heart of the new city at the Palatine Hill. That should be the end of the discussion, but not for Remus, son of Mars.

The bitterness of Remus

Remus got really sour about losing the contest and, consequently, the crown of the new born city. He then started to provoke his brother Romulus so much that the discussion started over again. Things can quickly escalate when two sons of Mars decide to argue and that was precisely what happened.

The mocking became a discussion, the discussion got out of hand and became a fight, and the fight ended up with the sword. That was the moment that would determine everything. Blood was shed everywhere as none of the brothers would give up the fight. They were too strong and too competitive for that, until the moment Remus made a mistake. Romulus, without hesitation and with one faster move than his brother’s, shaped the fate of the new civilization.

Romulus carved his sword into Remus’ flesh. At the end, there would be only one king and neither Remus or Romulus would accept not being it. Remus fell dead, knowing that this should be the only destiny for one of them. They had too much of their father in them.

Griefing or not, Romulus should move forward with his plan. The city was settled in the Palatine, where the Lupercal – the cave they were found by Faustulus and Larentia – was said to be located.

Roma invicta

Later on, Romulus had to name the new born city. This name would haunt the dreams of its enemies forever and would be the synonym of order, pride, conquest and many of the western values until this day. Rome is still the model of architecture, law and behaviour. Many of the European languages are called “Romantic” because they are a variation of the Latin, the language spoken by the Romans. On 21st April 753 BC he baptised the city after himself and it was called Roma (Rome). 

All over the years to come, Rome gave asylum to everyone as this was something both brothers decided before the conflict between them. No matter the background, they would find their land in Rome. This actually attracted many men however no women, but this is another battle Romulus, the victorious son of Mars, had to fight. Romulus reigned for many years.

It is said that one day, Romulus was marching with his troops in the field of Mars when a strange storm arose. Thunders and strong winds stroke the land. Suddenly, a dark cloud came from the skies and surrounded Romulus. It was his father Mars taking the king to the heavens to become a god himself.

Looking at Rome’s foundation legend, maybe we can have a better understanding of the ancient Roman behaviour. It’s not every civilization that would highlight such a violent story, with fratricide and kidnaps, but to me that tells me very much how the Romans saw the world and relationships around them. That could explain the many years of civil war until the Pax Romana was established by the first Emperor Augustus. At the end, everything was for the glory of Rome and obviously power. For all the Romans are, conceptually, sons of Mars, descending from Aeneas, hero of the Trojan war, and fed by wolves.

The excellence of the Roman society brought them to the top of the world for a thousand years. All the generals had to fulfill the shoes of their ancestors and specially, the two brothers that raised the city from the ground up to become the massive empire destined to be.

This is the legendary story of the foundation of Rome. The savage hill that became a city; the city that became a kingdom: the kingdom that became a republic; and the republic that became the largest empire the ancient world had ever seen.

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If you search for Celtic gods, you will probably bump into his name and possibly find some visual references, but none of them can give us much conclusion about his personality, function or appearance.

Even his name is not certain. The name Cernunnos comes from inscriptions found in some places that may refer to the same deity. One of them is under the Cathedral of Notre Dame, in Paris in a pillar known as Pillar of the Boatmen. The other similar inscription remains in Luxemburg as “Deo Ceruninco”.

All the inscriptions and images that seem related to Cernunnos are from Roman times, even though the Roman religion was endorsed, local gods were also worshiped. This was one of the ways the Romans found to keep peace and order throughout the Empire.

There are many different representations identified as Cernunnos, but they all depict him with the same similar characteristics: antlers, seated cross-legged and always associated with stags, horned serpent and other beasts, also he is usually holding or wearing a torc around his neck.

One of the most famous images from Cernunnos – or at least we think it’s him – is carved on the Gundestrup Cauldron. The cauldron is a decorated silver vessel, dated around 150 BC and 1 BC. It is the largest known example of European Iron Age silver work from this age. It is now on display in the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen. But the earliest depictions of him were found at Val Camonica, in northern Italy, which by that time was under Celtic.

Now, what is Cernunnos really about?

Not very much, I’m afraid. The name Cernunnos is the name given to the horned god featured in Roman-era, mostly in Gaul and Iberia. Some things we know are that he was worshipped as “the lord of wild things” and should be really powerful.

As the god of wild things, he was held as god of uncivilised and wild animals, trees and fruits. This way we can also assume the Horned One could also have had some relation as a god of fertility and life, maybe a source of vitality or virility.

We can also relate Cernunnos to the mythological Greek god Pan and the Roman Silvanus. Both were horned gods and ruled the forests, promoting the natural world and wild animals and instincts. It is also possible that the cult of the Horned god could have inspired catholics to connect his image with the devil, helping to fight paganism in central Europe.

Cernunnos unfortunately was lost in history and scholars are doing the best they can to find more information about him as there were no written registers by that time. Let’s hope they can help us understand the Horned One a bit better as soon as possible.

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It’s really difficult to start talking about King Arthur, so I will do it gradually by explaining first how his story hit me.

Back in the 80’s, when I was born, I watched a movie that would change everything to me. There were knights, magic, prophecies and a legendary sword, crafted by the gods and destined to be wield by the true king of the Brittons. 

I’m not here to talk – only – about the movie, but about the passion it brought to my life. Excalibur was released in 1981 and tells the story of King Arthur, beginning with how his father, Uther Pendragon, mated with Igrane, his mom, and the quest for the holy grail carried by his knights to save the land.

By that time, I was really young and had already heard something about the mythical king, his personal counsellor, the wizard Merlin, and the sword of power that, for me, was only a long iron stick nailed in a random stone in the middle of the forest, but even though I was curious about it. 

I remember the first time I saw Merlin saying his mysterious Charm of Making: “Anál nathrach, orth’ bháis’s bethad, do chél dénmha“. An Old Irish charm to change things with the breath of the Dragon, an omnipresent serpent. Nor I could forget the epic speech he gave to the knights while King Uther wield Excalibur:

“Behold Excalibur! The sword of power! Forged when birds and beasts and flowers were one with Man, and death was but a dream!”

I was fascinated and massively hooked. 

That was the first story I’ve ever loved. The boy who took the sword of power from the stone and became the king that one day would hold all the best values that any man to come should bear.

I had the opportunity to see part of my idol’s land and history by visiting Tintagel’s Castle where, if real, the King was supposedly conceived. All the atmosphere around King Arthur is magical and has a taste of nobility. 

The accounts of King Arthur date back from the 5th century AD, when the Romans decided to retreat from Britain for good and leave the Britons to their fate in the hands of the Saxons, a people native from Northern Germany. The Saxons were ruthless just as their Norse gods.

We do not know for sure how the legend of Arthur came to be. Maybe he was only a soldier, just as the movie of 2004 showed, a Roman general trying to avoid a massacre. Maybe he was a real Britton king, defending his land with all he’s got.

The earlier stories I could find about our beloved king didn’t have anything to do with Lancelot or the Holy Grail. His name is first mentioned in Historia Brittonum, written by the Welsh monk of the 9th century, Nennius. Nennius was followed by Geoffrey of Monmouth, in the 11th century, in his Historia Regum Britanniae and found its final format in Thomas Malory’s Le Morte D’Arthur, where we can finally find his quest for the holy relic.

I understand that

Arthur, whatever the version, had to overcome brutal enemies and came across pain, loss and victory. He and his Knights of the Round Table would be forever associated with the ideals of the knighthood and also would be the base for the chivalry in the centuries to come, inspiring people until this day. I am one of them. 

I see him as the one person that would fight with no rest to give his people peace, prosperity and justice. Fair to the very core and prepared to sacrifice himself without hesitation. To me it was very easy to decide to follow his path as much as I could, because I saw these same values and strengths in my first – and still – great hero, my own father. I couldn’t be more inspired to always be my finest version every day.

The great King, historical or not, will always be in my mind pushing me to always do and be my best. King Arthur opened my eyes to many things and to all the things that I love and inspired me and my wife to start this company. We will keep being curious and inspired and hoping we help you do the same.

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He was a Titan that fought side by side with the Olympian gods but that did not prevent him to suffer one of the worst punishments Zeus has ever given to anyone. His deeds would mark the beginning of human technological evolution which would take us to become a space exploration species.

Prometheus was a Titan, the dominant race of gods before the Titanomachy takes place. He was the son of the Titan Iapetus, son of Uranus and Gaia, with Clymene, a water-nymph daughter of Oceanus and Tethys.

“Forethought” was the meaning of his name, therefore Prometheus was intelligent and very resourceful. When war came over to the world of the gods, he promptly offered himself as counselor of the Titans, but the brute mind of these older gods didn’t give him any credit.

Feeling excluded, he swapped sides and offered the Olympians his abilities. He also brought his brother, Epimetheus – which name means afterthought. Both brothers aided to win the 10 years’ war with the old gods and later on helped them to build the new order of everything, including the creation of the animals and especially the humankind.

But what marks Prometheus the most is his love for his creation. This is the story we would like to briefly tell. There are two versions on how everything happened.

The first one begins

In this version all started after Prometheus and his brother created the humans and the other animals. Here, we need to make a short note about that because there are 2 ways that this might have happened:

On the 1st version, after a huge flood, his son and daughter in law, Deucalion and Pyrrha were the only survivors becoming the first of the humans (look at that);

On the 2nd version, the victorious Zeus rewarded the help they gave and the canny mind of the brothers with the mission to create everything in the world. Prometheus created all the things while his brother gave gifts for every creation, leaving the humans, made from clay, for last. 

To all the living things Epimetheus gave incredible gifts. For some, he presented with claws and teeths, to others, wings and to some, the ability to breath underwater. When he finally got to humankind, he didn’t have any gift left.

Seeing those nude and fragile creatures, made from clay, and understanding they would not have any advantage to thrive over the other species, Prometheus felt sorry and decided to give them the ultimate prize of all. 

It was when he had the idea to sneak into Mount Olympus and pick up a special thing from his fellow gods Athena and Hephaestus’s workshop. That special thing was creative fire. He took it and hid in a hollow fennel-stalk and brought it to the human beings.

He then taught them how to use the gift of fire to cook and do metalwork and would be forever associated with science, technological advance and culture.

The second version: Trick at Mecone

The second version takes place at Mecone where Hesiod puts Zeus in the centre of the story in his Theogony. This time, humankind already had the knowledge of fire and was prospering accordingly.

Humans and gods met at Mecone to decide on how humans should pay tribute to the gods. Both, mortals and immortals decided that a sacrifice should take place to honour those ruling the cosmos.

An ox was slayed as offering. Zeus and the gods should take the best part of the meat and humans would have the bones and less nutritious and flavorless bits. That ritual continued for some time on.

One day, Prometheus, seeing his creation unfairly suffering with the bad food and famine, decided to take action and made a plan for the next sacrifice.

This time, he killed the ox and put fat and bones on one side and the good meat on the other. The trick was that under the bones, destined to humans, he hid the good food and under the part everyone could see the good meat, he hid the bones and fat.

Not noticing anything, Zeus accepted the offering and went back to Olympus to enjoy his feast. When Zeus realised the trick, it was too late. Furious, the king of the gods punished humankind by taking away the gift of fire, leaving the world in total darkness, cold and despair.

Once again, feeling sorrow for his children, Prometheus entered the Olympus and stole back the fire to give to humans. Not noticing the trick, Zeus could not avoid humankind to develop and was long after the thievery that he saw the grown cities and huge populations, thriving over the darkness he left behind.

The part where the legends cruelly convert

Whatever version you would like to follow, we believe that we can only assume that Prometheus truly loved humans and tried many times to help his beloved ones to go further and thrive over the adversities. This was his major crime, preferring mortals much more than the immortals.

Also, whatever version you chose in this article, the end is always the same for the passionate Prometheus. 

Furious, Zeus had to make him an example to everyone. His leadership also depended on showing that he would severely punish whoever challenged his authority and grip his kingship at all costs. The universe was won upon a great cost and effort to be given up easily, the greedy gods would take any chance to usurp his position.

The only way to fix that was to condemn Prometheus to eternal suffering. The sentence was brutal: he should be chained to a mountain and everyday and every morning an eagle should come and devour the Titan’s liver. As Prometheus was immortal, he would be alive during the whole time and his liver would regenerate at night just to be torn apart the next morning until the end of times.

At some point, after a long time of torture, his torment came to an end. The hero Heracles, on the way to steal the golden apples of the Hesperides, saw the Titan and decided to help him, killing the eagle using one of his arrows dipped in hydra’s poison before she could reach him and putting to an end the monumental suffering.

Prometheus never expressed any regrets of doing what he had done. Amongst the gods, he is known as “the trickster”. We would rather refer to him as the best friend of humankind, the only god in greek mythology that really loved humanity and has done what was best for his creation.

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Athena is one of the most celebrated deities in all the western world, and it’s easy to understand why: she was strong, intelligent, resourceful and mostly fair. Her conception was unusual and she played a fierce and ruthless role during the Trojan war.

Hesiod wrote in his epic Theogony about her birth, just after Zeus was crowned the king of the Olympian gods. The new monarch married the titaness Metis, an Oceanid daughter of the titan Oceanus.

Athena’s father, Zeus, was the youngest and most prominent of the Olympian gods and had just defeated his father, Cronus, and his uncles during the war against the titans for the control of the universe.

The Titanomachy, as it was called, was an apocalyptic event. Some say that it was based on a real life chain of events caused by the eruption of a volcano located at the centre of the famous island of Santorini, a blast so massive that scholars say that its quake could be felt in California. This volcano is active until this day.

Metis, her mother, was part of the thousands of nymphs, all of them daughters of the titan Oceanus with his sister Tethys, called Oceanids. Metis was known for being much wiser and to have had offered to help the young Zeus, right before the war between Titans and Olympians. 

At that time, Cronus, the father of the first 12 Olympians, had swallowed 11 of his children with Rhea after learning about the prophecy that one day he would be overthrown by one of his sons.

Metis, knowing that Zeus planned to rescue his siblings to fight by his side against his father, offered Cronus a poison that made the Titan vomit his children, culminating later on in the prophecy’s fulfillment. From this alliance, love was born between Zeus and Metis.

But as in all the Greek stories: if it’s all good, something is wrong

Both parents were incredibly gifted and all was well for a while. Metis got pregnant from Zeus and the promise of a long reign was finally settled. Nothing seemed to break the new peace set in the cosmos.

It was then that a disturbing prophecy came to Zeus’ knowledge. He was appalled to learn that he would suffer from the same fate as his father’s and should be overthrown by one of his sons with Metis. Uneasy by the news, the Olympian sketched a plan to keep his kingship, he would not lose what he so effortly conquered.

The plan was to challenge Metis to a shapeshift contest. Metis was a skilled shapeshifter and would not back off on such a great opportunity to show her skills to the Olympus, so she accepted the tournament. 

They’ve changed into a variety of big animals, one bigger or stronger than another. Eagles, bulls, deers, horses, moose and lions. They’ve changed to all sorts of animals and fought with beaks, teeths and claws to exhaustion, none of them could seem to be able to win. At the end, Zeus recognized Metis as equally skilled in turning into big animals, but what about the small ones? How small could they transform into? 

The proud Metis didn’t hesitate

She straight away accepted the new challenge and got ahead of herself turning into a quite small fly. She was now so small that she could be easily swallowed if you should breathe too hard or to be pushed far away with a weak sneeze.

That was precisely what Zeus wanted. Right away she found herself inside her husband’s stomach. Zeus had committed a terrible crime and did to her what he most hated and what made him confront his father: he had swallowed Metis.

Inside the god’s belly, she blended with him in mind, bringing him wisdom. Metis, as an immortal being, would never die and would be trapped inside Zeus for all eternity. Although she was disappointed with her fate, she also felt glad because she truly loved Zeus and that was a way to be with him all the time.

She would counsel him whenever he needed and they would almost become one powerful wise universal being, quite fit to rule the gods.

After some time, weird things started to happen

A long time has passed since Zeus had swallowed his first wife, he even had other affairs (so many) and marriages including the one with his present wife, his sister, the goddess Hera. 

Since the event with Metis, he had nothing else but more and more wisdom, until someday he started to feel a huge headache he couldn’t bear, nothing seemed to ease the massive pain. He asked many gods to help, but it was in vain. Just when Hephaestus, the god of blacksmiths and fire, came up to rescue that everything changed.

The skilled Hephaestus analysed the situation and concluded that the only way they could get rid of the pain was to open Zeus’ head and let whatever was in there come out.

As crazy as that may sound, that was exactly what they did. Hephaestus took a labrys – a sort of Minoan small axe – and, with a single swing, opened the god’s head. 

An even more odd thing happened after that. As soon as Hephaestus opened the wound, a grown up, dressed with armor, shield and spear, woman came out of Zeus’s forehead. She was fabulous and looked like she was up to any task. Athena was born, ready for battle.

Athena, the strong

Her strong presentation to the world displays her on point personality. Athena was a product of strength, strategy, intelligence and action, all at the same time. She reflected very much both of her parents and their symbiotic relationship.

Many are the stories of Athena, sometimes almost an angel to the rescue, sometimes like a non stop hammer, crushing her enemies with the most violence possible. During the Trojan war, where she sided with King Aggamenomn, she used all her power to bring victory to the Greeks and even helped the Greek hero Diomedes, hurting physically Aphrodite and Ares in battle.

In another occasion, after the Trojan war, she showed her bellic nature to king Odyssious when he felt pity for his rival Ajax, the great, by saying:

To laugh at your enemies: what sweeter laughter can there be?

She became the goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, law and justice, strategic and defensive warfare, mathematics, strength, strategy and the arts.

Athena could be kind or unforgiven, and that was what made her one of the most beloved and feared goddesses of all ancient world.

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]]> https://findyourquest.co.uk/greek/the-birth-of-athena/feed/ 0 https://findyourquest.co.uk/norse/baldurs-death-and-the-prologue-of-the-end/ https://findyourquest.co.uk/norse/baldurs-death-and-the-prologue-of-the-end/#respond Fri, 07 May 2021 07:00:00 +0000 https://findyourquest.co.uk/?p=17399 Many are the tales of enlightened deities who come, bring peace and knowledge and are killed leaving the path ahead. With Baldur should not be different.

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Many are the tales of enlightened deities and they all share similar elements. It’s not hard to find them, usually they are celestial beings that come to bring peace, order and knowledge and at the end, invariably they are killed leaving the path ahead to others. With Baldur’s Death should not be different.

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With Baldur should not be different. He was honest, handsome, kind and wise and met his unfair end in the hands of his brother.

Baldur was one of the sons of Odin and Frigg, the most beloved of the Aesir. There was no creature, stone or plant that didn’t care about the god.

He lived with his wife Nanna and his son Forseti in a place called Breidablik. A place in the heavens so incredible that, according to the Prose Edda, it is impossible to be unclean. All this reflected the god’s aura, always clean in mind, spirit and soul, perfect to his very core.

His fairness and light were also reflected in his family: Nanna, his wife, was the goddess of peace and joy and his son, Forseti, justice and reconciliation. All around Baldur was perfect.

But something wasn’t right

Even though he had all this love towards him, he started to dream about his vicious death. For many nights, Baldur dreamed about it as an omen that something terrible was to come.

Frigg, his mother, was a völva and had the same nightmare. Worried, she shared her concern with the Allfather. That information struck Odin, he had learned long ago that Ragnarök, the twilight of the gods, would be caused by the death of his son.

Instantly both gods went into a quest to avoid Baldur’s death by telling everything and everyone in the cosmos not to hurt him. An oath was made by all but the mistletoe. 

Here is where we have some diversion on how that happened. Some say that Frigg found the plant so tiny and delicate that she didn’t even bother to ask it the favour as it would be impossible that Baldur could be hurt by such small and fragile thing.

On another darker version, Frigg did ask the mistletoe to swear the oath, but it refused. That’s because the plant was Loki in disguise.

The truth, we will never know.

So they said “mission accomplished”

Baldur was safe and more than ever before, the Aesir became the thrill of Asgard. All the other gods, knowing it was impossible to hurt him, started to throw arrows, axes and rocks at him and were astonished by his invincibility.

Everything seemed good. Relieved, Odin and Frigg took a deep breath for they had evicted the death of their beloved son once and for all. That was when Loki came to change everything.

The trickster saw everyone amazed by Baldur’s new power but his brother, Hodr. The other son of Odin could not enjoy his sibling’s fortune for one simple reason: he was blind. Not that Hodr resented Baldur, he just could not join the others in the celebration.

Loki decided to help him. He walked up to Hodr and said “I can help you with that. One brother should be able to share another brother’s joy“. He then took a bow and arrow and placed it in Hodr’s hand.

“Trust me“

whispered Loki in his ear

And so it happened…

Loki aimed and gave the command to release the arrow. A second later, total silence. The gods were in complete shock, Baldur, the fair, handsome, wise and lately invincible, was dead. Whilst the gods watched his body fall, they were all trying to understand how that could be possible.

What has happened which no one saw is that Loki had managed to create an arrow made from mistletoe, the only thing that did not swear to hurt Baldur. We do not know for sure if it was for envy, hate or simply for the fun of cruelty, we only know that he found a way to do another mischief and, this time, went too far.

Despair took place. The Allfather even had time to whisper something in his son’s ear, but it was too late, Baldur was gone. Odin refused to accept his son’s fate and decided to send someone to the underworld to retrieve him from Hel back to Asgard and negotiate Baldur’s death.

Hermóðr immediately offered himself to complete the quest and rode the borrowed Sleipnir as fast as he could to reach the foul place. Getting there, he bagged Hel – the daughter of Loki and queen of the dead – to give Baldur back. It was when he realised that the Aesir was there, sitting by her side, sad and without his usual light.

Hel agreed to retrieve the god under one condition:

— If it is so that Baldur is so beloved by everyone and everything, humans, gods, plants, rocks, mountains and rivers, so hear my demand: all must weep his death! Otherwise, he's mine to keep until the end of times.

Said Hel confident that she would thrive over the challenge.

Hermóðr accepted the offer and ran back to Asgard to tell the news to the gods which, straight away, started the quest. Through the 9 realms, they ran, asking all things to shed tears for the kind Baldur.

It was in Jötunheimr that everything collapsed, as the giantess Thokk, who lived in an isolated deep and dark cave refused to weep. She claimed no love for Baldur and that Hel should keep her belonging to herself.

That was the end, Baldur would not come back. This was the first event marking the dawn of Ragnarök and the end of all things, but this is another story we will have to tell.

He came, brought light to those around him and was ruthlessly killed. Was promised to return, but left the world to its apocalyptic fate. After the events caused by his death, he would be reborn to rule the realms with dignity and peace.

That is the story of Baldur’s death, but there are many others throughout history, similar to this one. Would you risk anything? We invite you to share your thoughts and help us understand our lives through the ancient stories as our ancestors once did.

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]]> https://findyourquest.co.uk/norse/baldurs-death-and-the-prologue-of-the-end/feed/ 0 https://findyourquest.co.uk/norse/sunna-the-conductor/ https://findyourquest.co.uk/norse/sunna-the-conductor/#respond Sun, 02 May 2021 17:16:54 +0000 https://findyourquest.co.uk/?p=17391 The Germanic peoples are within those who created a face, name and stories for the Sun, but for them the star was a goddess named Sunna. She was destined to ride across the skies until the end of time.

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The Norse religion is within those who created a whole persona for the Sun, but for them the star was a goddess named Sunna. She was destined to ride across the skies until the end of time.

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The ancient ones believed that everything had a reason to be or, many times, a personality of its own. It’s not hard to find personifications of chaos, earth, skies and other mightiness of nature.

Most often we find our forefathers giving name and appearance to the Sun, the most venerable star in our sky. It’s easy to understand why. In the majority of the European cultures, the simple presence of the Sun meant that it was time to sow, and with long and dark winters, time to venture outside without freezing to death.

The Germanic peoples are within those who created a face, name and stories for the Sun. Most uncommon, it was a goddess named Sunna or Sól.

There are no precise records on how she came to be or who she really was, the Poetic Edda says that Sunna and her brother Máni, the Moon, were born in the beginning of time and, not knowing what to do with their powers, received the task from the gods to wander in the skies in a certain way to establish the four seasons.

On the other hand, in the Prose Edda, they were fathered by a man called Mundilfari that found them so beautiful that he gave them the names of the Sól, after the Sun, and Máni, after the Moon. In this version, Sól married a man called Glenr (meaning opening in the clouds) and, because of her father’s arrogance in comparing her to the god’s creation, she was actually condemned to conduct the Sun.

The figure of Sunna is composed by a lady with golden curly hair that looks like rays of light.

She rides a chariot pulled by the horses Árvakr (Early Riser) and Alsviðr (Swift), carrying the Sun – which was made from sparks of Muspelheim, one of the 9 norse worlds – and with a shield called Svalinn, to protect the land from burning up completely.

It’s also known that Sunna and her brother are chased all the time by the sons of the gigantic wolf Fenrir – Skoll (Mockery) and Hati (Hate). At the end, during the apocalyptic events of Ragnarök, the beasts will finally reach their prey. Although it is the end for Sunna, her daughter will continue her legacy.

Sunna was praised for many reasons and associated with the power of healing, both the land and the people. For Midgard, Sól brings the spring making the trees, grass and flowers come back to life, also it is when the rivers unfreeze and it’s time to plant once more. Basically, it’s time to be reborn and rise back to life.

To the people, having the sunlight back was a sign that the hard times are gone and that they could finally be back to work the earth, time for a little happiness and a break of the hardness of the dark and cold months that have passed, to rejoice for a second before it goes all dark again.

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]]> https://findyourquest.co.uk/norse/sunna-the-conductor/feed/ 0 https://findyourquest.co.uk/greek/mythology-the-greek-word-and-history-explained/ https://findyourquest.co.uk/greek/mythology-the-greek-word-and-history-explained/#respond Mon, 19 Apr 2021 09:06:10 +0000 https://findyourquest.co.uk/?p=17364 We are always curious and looking for more, this is what makes us different. Wandering over the internet trying to find more inspiration, we bumped into Alpha Omega, a Greek Youtube channel concerning ancient Greek history, mythology and archeology. The videos are upload in Greek – what a beautiful language! – with English subtitles. You […]

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]]> We are always curious and looking for more, this is what makes us different.

Wandering over the internet trying to find more inspiration, we bumped into Alpha Omega, a Greek Youtube channel concerning ancient Greek history, mythology and archeology.

The videos are upload in Greek – what a beautiful language! – with English subtitles. You can either find narratives about the 300 of Sparta or the abduction of Persephone by Hades.

We enjoyed the videos and decided to share this joy with you. We would like to specifically highlight this one below where Alpha Omega explains the etymology of the word “mythology”, where it came from and why it is not the same as fantasy.

Everything is very well explained and easy to follow. Alpha Omega is one to watch! Relax and learn from those who invented the word and some of the most incredible and complex pantheons the world has ever seen.

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]]> https://findyourquest.co.uk/greek/mythology-the-greek-word-and-history-explained/feed/ 0